Arresting Rail Track Foundation Settlement

Our plant was constructed over lowland filled up with flyash and dredged sand. It has 4 rows of heat recovery type coke oven Batteries. Each row has 88 ovens, having 480 m long rail track on either side for Pusher and Quenching Car. Pusher car track foundation was constructed on 33m piles having staggered spacing of 3.0m, with the gauge of track being 12m. Quenching car track foundation was constructed on 18m piles having spacing of 2.06m, with the gauge of track being 10m.

From past few years we are facing problem in maintaining both the tracks due to settlement of track foundation upto an extent of 120mm in some areas. As a result of the rail track undulation/settlement our coke oven battery operation is getting hampered. Also, due to settlement of rail track, we are facing problem in positioning of pusher and quenching car during pushing operations due to rolling of car. There is damage of power collector and failure of Pusher and Quenching car components. Moreover, there is also bending of press plates below rail track due to cracking of underlying concrete. Hence, the challenge is to eliminate this problem of settlement of rail track foundation in order to have a smooth operation of Pusher and Quencher cars.